It is desirable to provide entertainment content such as interactive gaming services and digital signage to certain businesses. Businesses requiring these services may be involved with retail establishments in the restaurant and bar business sector that typically serve alcoholic beverages. However, federal and state laws and regulations restrict the amount of interaction between alcohol retailers, alcohol distributors/wholesalers, and alcohol manufacturers. Indeed, such laws and regulations prohibit vertical integration between the various tiers of the system for alcohol distribution. Because of the numerous restrictive laws and regulations that often vary from state-to-state and with the federal government, it has not been possible to provide entertainment content such as interactive gaming services and digital signage to businesses when such entertainment content involves interactions between alcohol retailers, alcohol distributors/wholesalers, and alcohol manufacturers on the one hand, and alcohol retail establishments on the other. Indeed, such restrictive laws and regulations make it difficult even to advertise alcohol-related promotions.
A provider of aggregated content including interactive gaming services and digital signage may implement a revenue sharing model to create incentives for the retail establishment to display such content. Digital signage provides a way for displaying advertisements in a relatively low-cost manner without the typical costs associated with traditional advertising. Advertisements at the national level provided by an advertising provider (e.g., a party not involved with the manufacturing or distribution/wholesaling of alcohol) may then be distributed to retailers to increase advertisement penetration at a local level. The fees collected from these advertising providers (e.g., a party not involved with the manufacturing or distribution/wholesaling of alcohol) may then be shared with retailers to provide incentives for displaying the aggregated content.
The above-noted laws and regulations have presented numerous legal (e.g., compliance) and technical issues that have prevented advertisers, retailers, and alcohol retailers, distributors/wholesalers, and alcohol manufacturers from realizing the full benefits of advertising. For example, the above-noted laws and regulations make it illegal for revenue sharing to be implemented between the parties, for promotions to be run at the retailers on behalf of the alcohol providers, etc. Thus, it will be appreciated that there is a need in the art for techniques that comply with the various applicable federal and state requirements, while also providing some or all of the benefits of advertising, where legal. For example, there is a need in the art for techniques that comply with the various applicable federal and state requirements, while also providing aggregated content. In light of the above-noted federal and state laws related to alcohol distribution, the inventor of the instant invention has discovered that it is possible for aggregated content providers to ensure that revenues from fees collected from alcohol advertisers are not shared with any retailer involved with selling alcoholic beverages as a means of providing advertising and enabling revenue sharing, while also complying with the various applicable federal and state laws. Accordingly, certain exemplary embodiments relate to techniques for ensuring compliance with these federal and state laws and regulations related to alcohol distribution when using digital signage, in a manner that provides some or all of the benefits associated with the same, where legal.
In certain exemplary embodiments, a method and system for providing digital signage are described. In certain exemplary embodiments, the method comprises: receiving advertisements at a data center, where the advertisements to be displayed are based on receipt of advertising fees, wherein at least one of the advertisements is a alcoholic beverage advertisement; sending at least one advertisement from the data center to a display processor via a packet data network; integrating the advertisement in a display window with video using the display processor such that the advertisement appears on a portion of a display in a retail establishment of a retailer while the video is playing and the retail establishment is selling alcoholic beverages and while complying with legal regulations relating to alcoholic beverages.